Beijing Xingdebao 5S | Pei Architects

[EN] - This new 26,000 m2 BMW showroom and service center in the Chaoyang District of Beijing is the largest automobile dealership in China. The building is expected to be the first LEED Gold-certified BMW dealership and the first BMW dealership to be raised to 5S status, representing its importance within the BMW network. The dealership contains both new and pre-owned cars, sales and merchandising areas, a VIP lounge, administrative offices, and extensive service workshops. The building design has taken every advantage of the long narrow site to bring natural light into the building. The long south façade has been faced with translucent U-channel glass, sourced from China, providing maximum daylight into both workshop levels while preventing open views into the workshops from adjacent houses. The channel is in a double-wall insulated form with a special coating to reduce radiant heat gain and loss and is an important contribution to the overall reduction in heating and cooling loads. The main workshop is flooded with abundant natural night from traditional 19th century-type industrial roof monitors. The monitor roofs are sloped at the optimum south-facing angle in Beijing for solar water heating panels and photovoltaic panels. Additional daylight from a long wide skylight above the showroom and VIP mezzanine is itself an interesting design feature. The interior courtyards located down the center of the building serve to define separate zones for customer areas on the north and workshops on the south. Significantly one courtyard goes down to the below ground Garden Level, bringing daylight and greenery to the After-Sales offices and workshops. All the courtyards have glass doors to permit natural ventilation in good weather. In addition to the emphasis on the proportions and materials of the exterior envelope, the best available advanced technologies that significantly reduce carbon footprints have been incorporated into the design. These include: 1. Ground source heat pumps provide energy for almost all heating and cooling loads. 2. Photovoltaic panels on the roof further reduce the electrical load required from the power grid. 3. Solar heat panels on the roof also reduce the use of outside energy for hot water. 4. Efficient use of water throughout, including gray water treatment and storage for re-use for irrigation, low-water sanitary fittings and recycling of treated car washing water. 5. White membrane roof used to reflect solar heat gain. 6. Setbacks from Yaojiayuan Road and the Fifth Ring Road green zone contribute effectively to the open space LEED requirements, and they are further supplemented by the partial green roof. The generous open space permits more natural vegetation and allows more rainwater to recharge the Beijing aquifer. 7. Landscaping designed with very low water requirements. 8. Majority of parking placed inside the building, reducing the exterior paved area and decreasing the “heat island” effects. As is typical for buildings built under LEED guidelines the construction materials were chosen for their regional origin and manufacture to minimize wasting energy in shipping products. All product and materials were sourced in China. The building opened on June 18, 2012 and awarded LEED Gold certification June 19, 2013.